The West Virginia Legislature has completed just over one-half of its 60-day regular session and the deadline for the introduction of new bills in the House of Delegates is now passed. While very few bills have been enacted so far, perhaps as a result of the new rules in the House, there has been movement on some of the bills of interest, and new ones have been introduced that have a good chance of completing the process. 

For this legislative session, the Spilman Thomas & Battle Government Relations Practice Group will provide bi-weekly updates to its clients and other interested readers concerning the progress of significant legislation in certain areas such as environment, oil & gas, tax reform, healthcare, insurance, consumer finance, and civil justice reform. 

Significant Remaining Dates in the 2025 Legislative Calendar:

• March 24, 2025: Last day to introduce bills in the Senate. Does not apply to bills originating in committee or appropriations bills.
• March 30, 2025: Bills are due out of committee in house of origin.
• April 2, 2025: Last day to consider bills on third reading in house of origin (Cross-Over Day).
• April 12, 2025 (midnight): Session ends.

PROGRESS UPDATE ON PREVIOUSLY REPORTED LEGISLATION OF INTEREST

Here is a brief progress update on those bills of interest that have been introduced in previous issues:

S.B. 552 Relating to Certified Business Expansion Development Program
This bill is the first of several addressing “microgrids,” or behind-the-meter electric generation (see discussion below), and it amends the existing microgrid statute by eliminating the requirement that only renewable power be generated and eliminating the restriction that projects must be on formerly state-owned property. The bill was amended to protect regulated electric utility customers from bearing any costs associated with the electricity generators located within the business development district and passed the Senate by a vote of 32-2 and is now pending before the House Energy and Public Works Committee.

S.B. 583 Establishing economic incentives for data centers to locate within the state
This bill would create economic incentives for data centers to locate within the state and further stimulate the state’s economy by relying on locally sourced coal-generated electricity. The bill was referred to the Economic Development Committee, where it has been pending for several weeks. Once that Committee advances the bill, it would also have to be advanced by the Finance Committee before March 30.

H.B. 2008 Relating to Executive Branch reorganization
The purpose of this bill is to significantly reshape state government by merging certain governmental units within the Department of Commerce. While the reshuffling of the government organization chart did not draw that much debate, it was the provisions dealing with the new and current employees that drew the most resistance. Specifically, the bill grandfathered employees of the Division of Economic Development who are currently members of the classified civil service system into that system as long as they remained in their position. Further, the bill permitted employees of the Division who currently have recourse to the state grievance procedures to maintain access to the same as long as they remain in their current position. However, new hires as of July 1, 2025 and current employees who change their current position after that date are transferred to the classified-exempt service system and exempted from the state grievance procedure. The bill passed the House by a vote of 61-37 and was reported to the Senate where it was referenced to the Committee on Government Organization.

Similarly, the House of Delegates advanced H.B. 2009 which consolidated Arts, Culture, and History into Tourism. This bill also contained the same provisions governing current and new employees for the affected government units. The bill passed the House by a vote of 72-25 and was communicated to the Senate where it was also referenced to the Committee on Government Organization.

H.B. 2026 Budget Bill
The executive branch agencies have completed their reports to the Finance Committees of both chambers. In the meantime, those committees are considering all legislation that may have a fiscal impact on the revenues or expenditures of state government. The West Virginia Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget. In recent years, the Legislature has been able to accomplish that requirement before the conclusion of the last day of the regular session, thus avoiding an extended session. It is too early to predict whether this Legislature can come to an agreement on a balanced budget by then. S.B. 300 is the Senate companion budget bill. 

S.B. 460 Vaccination Bill
The House Health & Human Resources Committee amended Governor Morrisey’s immunization exemption bill by preserving medical exemptions and eliminating the proposed exemptions based on religious and philosophical objections. Opponents of the committee amendment noted that the new medical exemption process is now too easy to meet in that it eliminates the position of State Immunization Officer and simply permits any physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner to provide a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or to the operator of the child care center that specific immunizations are or may be detrimental to the child’s health or are not appropriate. The bill now heads to the entire House for consideration where proponents of the religious exemptions will have the opportunity to restore those provisions in the bill.

S.B. 439 Wind Power Tax
The bill eliminating the preferential tax treatment accorded to wind power projects has remained pending in the Finance Committee for a month.

The following bills have not been previously reported herein and are of some significance:

H.B. 2354 Banning certain products from food in West Virginia
H.B. 2354 completed legislative action on March 14th. This bill garnered significant attention because it designates several commonly used food additives as “poisonous or injurious to the health,” including red dyes No. 3 and No. 40, yellow dyes No. 5 and No. 6, blue dyes No. 1 and No. 2, among others. Use of the listed ingredients results in a food being deemed “adulterated,” which criminalizes the manufacturing of or the sale of the product. The ban becomes effective as of January 1, 2028. Supporters of the bill believe it is in the best interest of the public health. Opponents argue that the legislation will lead to increased food costs and the loss of jobs in the state that manufactures impacted products. There is speculation that a federal ban will be imposed before the state ban becomes effective. The bill is expected to reach the Governor soon and he will have five days after its presentment, excluding Sundays, to act thereon. Opponents of the bill have started a publicity campaign urging the Governor to veto the bill. Under West Virginia law, the Legislature may override a veto by a simple majority.

S.B. 521 Requiring party affiliations be listed for all candidates
S.B. 521 eliminates the non-partisan election of judges and magistrates, thus reversing a policy position adopted by the Republican party when it first took control of the Legislature in 2015. The bill was passed by the Senate on March 12th and is now pending in the House Judiciary Committee. It requires that the election of justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Intermediate Court of Appeals judges, circuit court judges, family court judges, and magistrates be on a partisan basis. It also establishes primary and general election campaign periods, requires partisan ballots be used, and provides for the continuing applicability of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Public Campaign Financing Program.

H.B. 2014 Microgrid data centers
As expected, the Governor finally unveiled his microgrid data center bill. The bill is similar in some ways to S.B. 552 (see above), but goes further by officially creating a Certified Microgrid Program to be administered by the Division of Economic Development and defines “High Impact Data Centers" as a facility or group of facilities that are used to house and operate equipment that receives, stores, aggregates, manages, processes, transforms, retrieves, researches, or transmits data, has a critical IT load of 50 megawatts or higher, and is placed into service on or after July 1, 2025. The bill sets forth a special ad valorem property tax valuation calculation process that annually distributes any positive tax increment into certain funds, including the personal income tax reduction fund. “Incremental value” means the difference between the base assessed value and the current assessed value. The incremental value will be positive if the current value exceeds the base value, and negative if the current value is less than the base assessed value. The bill was referred to the Committee on Energy and Public Works. There is talk around the Capitol that the House may originate its own microgrid data center bill in the next week.